Associate editor at Dhamaka national daily Udaya Raj Adhikari was abused for seeking information at Infrastructure Development Office, Dailekh on June 1. Dailekh lies in Karnali Province of Nepal.
Talking to Freedom Forum, journalist Adhikari said that he along with one of his colleagues had sought information on ongoing development projects in Dailekh using RTI two months ago. But they did not receive any information. On the day of incident, information officer Man Bahadur Suna called Adhikari at the office. After reaching the office, office chief Prabhakar Singh abused the journalist in front of locals and other media persons.
"Singh warned me saying not to mess with him and ordered to re-write the application if I wanted the required information", Adhikari shared.
Freedom Forum condemns the misbehavior meted out to journalist for seeking information. It is sheer violation of press freedom and citizen's right to information. While the public authority should be responsible for safety of journalists and citizens, intimidation of journalists inside a public office for using RTI is deplorable.
Hence, the office chief is urged to correct his behavior and provide the information demanded by the journalists as per the RTI act.
For more information,
Freedom Forum
monitoring@freedomforum.org.np